Today we’d like to introduce you to Don Currie
Hi Don, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Don Currie is one of those rare individuals who was able to convert a passion into a profession. It wasn’t a straight path, however. Currie earned his BA from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and was simultaneously commissioned as an US Army Infantry Officer. He served in a variety of units to include the 75th Ranger Regiment and 193rd Infantry Brigade (Panama), as well as serving as an instructor at the US Army Ranger and Infantry Schools. His military service culminated in his command of a combat infantry company during Operation Just Cause (Panama, 1988-90).
After 7 years as an Army officer, Currie parlayed his military leadership experience into a 22-year corporate career. He served in a variety of senior sales, marketing and management positions with both public and private companies culminating with his role as CEO of Dixon Ticonderoga Company, a $100mm consumer products company based in Heathrow Florida. The company was purchased in 2005 after which Currie remained with the company for another 4 years and played a pivotal role in merging the company’s product lines and operations with Dixon’s Italian parent company, FILA, based in Milan Italy. After leaving Dixon in 2008, Currie served as Division Director for Robert Half’s Senior Financial Consulting Group in Orlando. In 2012, he decided it was time to pursue his passion.
Throughout his military and business career, Currie always maintained a deep and unrelenting passion for competing in the shooting sports, coaching, and hunting. He started shooting competitively at age eight, bird hunting at age fourteen and coaching in the shooting sports as a sixteen-year-old apprentice. His passion for the outdoors, competing in the shooting sports, and coaching others only increased with age. By 2007, Currie earned his way to Master Class on the NSCA competition circuit and in 2011 he won a National Championship title in side-by-side shotgun.
In 2012, Currie made a pivotal decision which would change the trajectory of his career, draw him away from the corporate world, and into the outdoors industry and sporting sports full time. In that year, he accepted the position of general manager of an exclusive shooting and hunting lodge and preserve in North Florida (The Gilchrist Club, Trenton, FL) where he established an Orvis Wingshooting and Fly Fishing School. In 2014, Currie struck out on his own, establishing the Academy of Wing & Clay Shooting, teaching and gunfitting full time. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed as Chief Instructor of the National Sporting Clays Association (NSCA). He has served in that capacity for over 10 years while simultaneously providing private and group shotgun instruction, gun fitting, and custom shotgun sales, through the Academy of Wing & Clay Shoooting which he founded in Florida.
Today, Currie is one of the most recognized and sought-after professional shotgun coaches and gun fitters in North America. He delivers extraordinary instructional experiences to clay target competitors, recreational shooters, and discerning sportsmen. Currie is an award-winning author, having written two instructional books, “Mastering Sporting Clays” and “Gunfitting”, distributed by Stackpole Publishing. He also co-produced two highly acclaimed 90-minute instructional videos with Sunrise Productions: “Focus-Movement-Faith” and “Target Tactics for Sporting Clays”. He writes for most of the major shotgun magazines as well as authors a monthly column in Clay Target Nation entitled “Ask the Instructor” which is also distributed weekly to over 40,000 clay target shooters via the NSCA’s Target Talk e-newsletter. He has been awarded the designation of “Fellow” by both the Institute of Clay Shooting Instructors (ICSI) and the Association of Professional Shooting Instructors (APSI), both based in the United Kingdom.
Today Currie lives in Lake Mary, Florida with his wife and family and continues to teach shotgun enthusiast and competitors as well as mentoring other coaches.
For more information, visit www.DonCurrie.com.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Making the decision to change careers in 2012, and move from the corporate world to the shooting sports.
One of the things that opened my mind and heart to following my passion was my Christian faith. In 2010, I attended Lifework Leadership, a 9-month Christian Leadership Course, and through that experience connected with a men’s group that I have been associated with for 15 years now.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
The Academy of Wing & Clay Shooting was founded in 2014. I provide shotgun instruction, gunfitting, and market custom fitted shotgun to discerning sportsmen and women in clay target sports and wingshooting (bird hunting). Simultaneously, I manage the NSCAs* Instructor Certification Program, as the NSCA’s Chief Instructor. My primary sources of revenue are derived from:
• Providing professional shotgun instruction to individuals and groups.
• Providing professional gunfitting.
• Selling high-end custom shotguns.
• Managing the NSCA’s Instructor Certification Program
• Writing for the sports magazines.
• Book royalties
• Video Royalties
• Consulting (ranges and resorts)
• Membership to my website (access to articles and how-to info)
I used to travel all over the country, providing lessons and fitting, however, in 2023, I established a permanent hime based at a shooting grounds in Paisley Florida. As a result, I am traveling alot less now, and my clients come to me. I continue to travel to least instructor courses as well as the occasional teaching tour.
What sets me apart is the quality of my instruction and gunfitting services. There are very few instructors who are also professional gunfitters. My ability to work with a client to put them together with a shotgun that fits them and is comfortable and enjoyable to shoot. Ultimately, my business thrives on the singe fact that breaking clay targerts with a shotgun is a blast.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Shotgun sports, and sporting clays in particular, is booming and the number of youth shooters and female shooters entering the sport is fueling that growth. There has been a significant shift in the UK toward steel shot replacing lead shot and fiber wads replacing plastic wads, for environmental reasons, but that shift has been nowhere nearly as dramatic in the US as it has been in Europe. COVID had a very positive effect on clay target sports overall, as everyone was looking for outdoor activities.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.DonCurrie.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoachDonCurrie/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachdoncurrie
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CoachDonCurrie_SportingClays/featured
- Other: https://g.page/r/CUChDGefyZiCEBE/review
